Colin Serlin of developer London Buildings has a track record that spans four decades of knowing what will be hot before anyone else. In a rare interview, he shares his thoughts on the future of London residential with Emily Wright
If you are after some intel on where the next London boom district is likely to be, you could do a lot worse than checking out where Colin Serlin is planning his next development. The chief executive of niche developer London Buildings has demonstrated an uncanny knack of knowing where to go first for more than 40 years.
In the 1970s, he took a punt and bought up property in Docklands. Twenty years later, everyone else moved in. In the 1980s, he did the same in Shoreditch and Hackney. And, sure enough, 20 years later, everyone else moved in. In the 1990s, he set his sights on King’s Cross, developing property all along the waterfront. Twenty years later… well we all know how that story ends. As we await the opening of King’s Cross Square in less than 50 days, Google is preparing to roll in and the area is undergoing a colossal transformation.
“I do tend to be a bit ahead of my time,” says Serlin quietly, sitting in Highgate Studios, a multi-unit former carpet warehouse which he bought in 1997. Serlin’s north London building is now home to around 70 businesses and is where he bases his own HQ – there’s a clue. “We have always managed to develop in places around 20 to 25 years before everyone else.”
It is no accident that Serlin has set up his current offices ?in Kentish Town. In a “Peckham-may-not-be-the-only-future-growth-district-in-London” shocker, Serlin has his money firmly on the property market north of the river. “I think we will see huge growth in Maida Vale, North Kensington, Kentish Town,” he says.
Nick Jones of Soho House fame seems to be in agreement. He bought 6,000 sq ft on the Highgate Studios estate three years ago for his trio of north London restaurants, Pizza East, Chicken Shop and Dirty Burger – all major brands putting this somewhat forgotten corner of London firmly on the map.
Here, 66-year-old Serlin gives a rare interview and discusses everything from the rise of the north London property market to what he envisages will be the next big thing in residential design.
The Godfather
Serlin strives to stay under the radar as much as possible, but the schemes he has taken on over the years, while few and far between, are more high-profile. He was the developer behind the Alaska Building in Southwark, SE1, the Glass Building in Camden Town, NW1, and Bow Quarter in Tower Hamlets, E3 – one of London’s first Manhattan Loft-inspired developments back in 1988. It was dubbed “London’s Upper East Side” and, looking back through old brochures from the time, you wouldn’t know that they were nearly 30 years old. “It could be an apartment designed today,” says Serlin. “Back then this sort of design was very out there. Very different.”
Indeed, the integration of US-influenced living style is something he has been bringing to London buildings for years, proving that he is not only ahead of the pack when it comes to location.
“He is quite simply the Godfather,” says Pilcher Hershman’s senior partner David Rosen. “He is the man who started it all when it comes to that open space, loft apartment style and floor-to-ceiling windows. Colin was doing it all first.”
And it has served him well. London Buildings went from being a £1m company in 1997 to turning over nearly £10m within five years.
Always relaxed
The success of the company, which Serlin ran with business partner Keith Zerdin until they parted ways five years ago, means that he is now in a position to develop almost as a hobby.
Serlin works in a small team of six people and takes on one or two projects a year and then dedicates all of his efforts to them – a new approach reflected in current financial figures. The company went from the aforementioned £10m turnover to £1.8m for the year ending March 2012. But Serlin insists this has been a deliberate strategy to allow him to work only when he wants to.
“I am totally relaxed. This is not a livelihood decision for me any more. I do buildings because I want to do them. And only if I like them,” he says. “I can see why some people might see that as a real indulgence, but it is more that I cannot work any other way and, financially, it works. In fact, financially it has always worked. I have picked the right buildings over the years, what we do is innovative and they always sell very well.”
Serlin may not be a mega developer with millions of square feet up his sleeve and ample opportunities to offer the property sector, but when it comes to future trends, his ideas are well worth keeping an eye on.
His new schemes, two small residential projects in north London, are all about New Orleans-style facades – mainly trellising and weatherboards. “I still think the East End has a real opportunity to utilise New York style because there are so many old textile and factory buildings in that part of London,” he says. “But in other parts of the city and with new-build projects, this is the type of design I think we might start to see more of.”
Design is everything
With such attention to detail and so much emphasis on design in his developments, Serlin feels strongly that all developers and housebuilders should take the same care – something he praises his larger peers for doing increasingly well.
“Sensitive design is absolutely crucial now for developers,” he says. “Thankfully, the quality of architecture has improved tremendously among the big housebuilders, with Berkeley and St George leading the way. They use the best designers now. That obviously makes me very happy.”
These days, Serlin is perfectly content to watch the capital’s mega schemes ?unfold from afar. And as he quietly hunts for the perfect spaces for development in north London and works on designs for just the right Deep South-style trellising for his next mews house design, it might not be long before everyone else starts to move in on the action.
He will just have got in there first. Naturally.
emily.wright@estatesgazette.com
